https://www.jeanninecook.com/Mon, 26 Aug 2013 19:51:30 +0000en-USSite-Server v@build.version@ (http://www.squarespace.com)Metalpoint (especially Silverpoint), a drawing medium that uses a silver stylus to make marks on a prepared surface, is one of the oldest art media. Twelfth-century monks first used lead styli to prepare manuscript illuminations. Despite being almost impossible to erase, silver gradually became the preferred metal. Draftsmen esteemed it for its fine lines, soft, intimate tonalities and intensifying image as the silver tarnishes warm, golden brown. By Renaissance times, every great artist, from Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael to Dürer and Holbein, used silverpoint for both preparatory and finished drawings. They produced masterpieces as fresh and vibrant today as when they were executed over 500 years ago.

]]>